Parents' Guide to Yaga

Brimming with intriguing, unusual characters and inspired by folklore about witchcraft and female rage, this sexy mystery series is nothing if not original. The best thing Yaga has going for it is Katherine (Carrie-Anne Moss), the seductively charming college professor who's an almost unknown figure in film and on TV: a woman in her 60s who's unapologetically sexual, attracts and courts romantic attention, and is completely secure about both her professional and personal attributes. In a world in which women over 40 go unnoticed (or, in the case of most TV shows, are entirely absent), Katherine not only defies convention, she leans into it for fun. As she purrs in a lecture caught by Rapp and Carson over visuals of a color-changing octopus and carnivorous plants, "Nature teaches us that the best way to kill something is to be invisible."

But to assume that means she's responsible for the disappearance of smarmy town scion Henry on the basis of that statement alone is to miss out on Yaga's weird, witchy fun. After all, the title itself refers to Baba Yaga of Slavic mythology, a forest-dwelling witch who holds two contrasting roles— sometimes she's a nice old lady who helps out a stalwart hero; sometimes she's a terrifying old woman who cooks and eats children. Yaga personifies the character with raspy-toned voiceovers that start and end each episode, complaining about those who call upon her power without recognizing her personhood. TV fans are able to accept and admire male antiheroes like Walter White and Tony Soprano all the time; why not a female character who's not a supportive wife or a loving mom or anything like all those TV women who exist only to amplify men? For viewers who can appreciate both this idea and a show bold enough to advance it, Yaga is pure magic.